Picturesque
by Niriiun
Summary: The life of Tachibana Makoto, as told through the eyes of his kitten.


I wrote this for my friend chaos because angst is my life. And I wanted to torture her oops.

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Out of all the cards within life to draw, the squirming bundle of fur had ended up as a kitten. Small, tiny, the color of freshly fallen snow. The snow isn't untainted; a few splashes of black ink cover the little kitten's back and tail. This is a good thing, because the kitten isn't perfect, nor is the life it is born into. Her family grows apart- they all die young. Her mother rejects her- she can feel the ache of hunger within her stomach, tiny paws and blind eyes searching for something that will never come again.

This little being, drawing such a card in life, would barely even begin to live. But there's a different card; one that's played only in the rarest moments of days. The wild card.

Unbelievably the little kitten is rescued, taken in by a kind stranger. She doesn't know what's going on just yet, just that there's a lot of movement and new smells and suddenly she isn't hungry anymore. This stage in her life, growing up with this stranger, offers her a new chance at the life she never would have lived.

Makoto lifted the little kitten with a smile. She was tiny, too young to leave her mother, and that somehow called out to him. The white bundle of fur was abandoned by her family- she had no one. Those green eyes had just barely opened and somehow, deep down, Makoto knew she was meant for him. And almost as if in response the kitten meowed, reaffirming his thoughts.

She stared up at him with those wide little eyes, tiny paws working at the air. Thoughts couldn't be kept within the tiny mind just yet- nothing other than eat, play, sleep. In the first few weeks of her life, those were her basic functions. The man who brought her home gave her a name, and although she was still small, the bundle of fur understood it. Shiro- her rescuer spoke it in an odd way. The kitten came to recognize his name too; he was Makoto.

When he came to feed her, Shiro wailed with all her might the name- _Makoto_.

There were others that came to visit throughout her life. She wasn't stupid by any means. Shiro could understand what they were saying if she listened enough. The kitten couldn't answer, no, but she could listen.

The little blond one, known as Nagisa, was incredibly energetic. He played with her the most- Shiro liked him. Nagisa would hover little toys above her head. Sometimes she chased the little mice he brought. Other times there was an annoying little red light that she could never get, even _when_ she caught it!

Then there was the sharp-toothed one. He had a temper that Shiro tried to avoid if she could. But once you got passed that, he was pleasant enough to play with. His name was Rin, and with him always came a hazy scent that made her feet refuse to listten. Shiro found out from a cat that sat on the window ledge that it was something called catnip. She didn't like it but Makoto and his friends laughed at her flailing feet.

Rei came with Nagisa a lot. He had glasses that Shiro liked to steal, and sometimes the tall boy would compliment her. Shiro often sat in his lap when she slept. Rei didn't really like her at first but the two of them seemed to establish a relationship of sorts- designated napping buddies. Makoto called them cute.

But her favourite one of Makoto's friends was Haruka. He was quiet and didn't talk much, but he liked to make good tasting fish. Shiro would sit on the counter as he made it, meowing every so often. The silent male would slip her little pieces; the two of them became close friends. She often played with his toes whenever he visited, and he would reward her with fish. Something that Makoto got mad at his friend for but Shiro wasn't complaining.

Most of the time it was just her, sitting on the edge of the window and watching the world pass by. Makoto went to something called 'school.' He had a strange likeness for water too. Her owner came home at night only, took a few moments to feed her, and then went to bed. Shiro figured this wasn't on purpose; he seemed quite busy all the time.

On the times he did stay home, Shiro would lay across his shoulders and watch him work. She was older now, nearly a year, but was still small for her age. The cat couldn't read but she stared at the pages; sometimes she bit his ears to get his attention. Makoto would laugh and pet her but only for a little bit. So she came up with other ways to get his attention, like drinking out of his teacup and stealing his pencil. This worked- he started paying more attention to her.

Sometimes the whole group would come over. It was those days that Shiro was treated like a queen, eating fish and playing with Nagisa. These were the days she loved.

Other times it was just Haruka and Rin. They came late at night. When this happened, Shiro was kicked out of her spot on Makoto's bed and forced to sleep in the livingroom. The cat didn't particularly like these days. The ground was hard and uncomfortable.

To get back at Makoto, she escaped out the front door one day. She was nearly two years old at this point, and not once had she been outside. Her adventure lasted a whole day, before Nagisa ended up finding her and bringing her back to her owner. Shiro had never seen him so angry with her; she hid underneath the table the rest of the night.

In the next few months, Shiro began to notice a few things changing. One was her stomach- it seemed to be growing bigger. It started to actually hurt at one point; something was moving within her. Makoto became more attentive to her after that. She was given a soft bed and good-tasting food, better than normal. And then one day everything hurt, and the next thing she knew, there were two little versions of her within the soft bed.

Makoto and all of his friends were there; Haruka was petting her head. Shiro really didn't know what was going on. She was scared, but she felt like this was what she was meant to do. But something was wrong; the little kittens weren't moving. They weren't making a sound or even trying to eat anything. Shiro announced her distress to Makoto but he just looked away. The cat nosed at her children but they didn't move, not an inch. She bit Nagisa when he tried to take them away; she apologized by licking the bite right afterwards. Shiro sat at the window most of the time after that.

Around her third, almost fourth, year in life, Makoto came home incredibly upset. He had little drops of water falling from his eyes. When Shiro tried to lick them off, he clung to her tightly and didn't let go. Normally the cat hated close contact but something about the situation made her stay, knowing that Makoto needed her now more than ever. She learned a new word that night and found out that the same thing could be applied to what happened to her- death. Her kittens had died, and someone important in her owner's life had died.

Haruka stopped visiting; Shiro learned it was him that died.

Her owner fell into a gloomy state, crying every so often, spending a lot of time home. Sometimes he forgot to feed her; other times he forgot to feed himself. Shiro made sure to always be nearby when he cried. She would lick away his tears and nuzzle underneat his chin to make him smile. This worked for a while.

A few months after Haruka died, Rin started showing up more. While he wasn't her favourite person, he did his best to cheer Makoto up where she couldn't.

Sometime along the way Rin moved in. She became used to waking up to him with her and Makoto in the bed, batting at his wiggling toes and curling up on his chest. Makoto became happy again.

Shiro was just turning six when Makoto and Rin brought home a child. He was young and small, but he could talk. His name was Haru, after Haruka, and liked to play with her. She wasn't fond of him at first but eventually they became good friends. She spent the next three years of her life watching him grow up and go to school.

It was a night in her ninth year of life when she felt really weak. Makoto, Rin, and Haru gathered around her and gently pet her body. Even Nagisa and Rei, who started to appear more and more after Haru moved in, showed up. Shiro didn't have to really know why. She felt herself getting weaker- animals knew these sorts of things.

Makoto scratched her underneath her chin with a gentle smile. "You'll have all the fish you can eat, Shiro, and you'll get to play cat and mouse with Haruka all you want. I'm sure you'll like it, Shiro. Just say hi to him for us alright?" The old cat meowed in response.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Shiro's heart gave out. She went quietly and pain free. When Makoto found her the next day, he smiled, thinking he heard the faint sound of Shiro meowing. And just underneath that was a laugh he hadn't heard since Haruka died.


End file.
